Grinder & “Pieces” Picked Up, “Brink” Cancelled

Two of this Fall’s new comedies have been picked up for full season orders – FOX’s “The Grinder” and CBS’ “Life in Pieces”.

FOX has handed out an order for a further nine episodes of the Rob Lowe and Fred Savage brother comedy which has been scoring good reviews and averaging a 1.7 rating and 4.96 million viewers in Live+7 numbers – up 70% on reality series “Utopia” in the same timeslot last season. The show is paired with “Grandfathered” and, though not official yet, a pick-up for that show is also looking likely.

Then there’s CBS which has given a back nine pick-up for “Life in Pieces,” bringing that show up to a full twenty-two episode season. The show has been averaging a 2.9 rating and 10.3 million viewers in Live+7 ratings.

Meanwhile, despite getting a second season renewal back in July, HBO has changed its mind and has opted not to continue with its political comedy series “The Brink”.

In a statement, the network says: “After evaluating our schedule and our programming needs, we unfortunately decided we cannot give The Brink the attention it deserves for a second season. We are proud of the first season and wish everyone involved in this show the very best.”

The Jack Black and Tim Robbins comedy opened to poor reviews and a respectable 1.6 million total viewers, faring not as well as the Dwayne Johnson-led “Ballers” which premiered at the same time on the network to better (but still mixed) reviews and a more impressive 2.2 million viewers.